Every one of us has certain expectations at Christmas. We expect to buy gifts and we expect to receive gifts. We expect the lights and the colors and the sights and the sounds of the season. We expect to eat a lot! We expect long lines in the department stores, and apparently this year more than ever, we expect to avoid those lines by ordering on-line and having it delivered to our home or office. We expect to be rushed from event to event, from party to party, from school play to church social. We expect to see family and friends. There is much about Christmas that is expected.
What we don’t like are the unexpected twists and turns of life that come our way, especially during the holiday season. The unexpected causes us stress, and we have enough stress with or without the holidays. You know what those unexpected twists are…an unexpected job loss, an unexpected death, an unexpected illness, and sometimes, even an unexpected house guest. Each of those is stressful enough, but when added at holiday time, the anxiety is compounded, and sometimes exponentially.
We expect, too, when we come to church at Christmas that we’re going to hear something about the Christmas story. It is quite unexpected to be reading and hearing about John the Baptist at Christmas! God did some pretty unexpected things that first Christmas—like coming into the world as an infant! But, God has always done the unexpected, and John the Baptist is an example. Besides, this is Advent, and I remind us that Advent is a time to prepare for the coming of Christ, and John the Baptist was sent by God to prepare for the coming of Christ. God used an unexpected time, and an unexpected person, and an unexpected message to speak His revelation.
It was an unexpected time. Luke sets it in the context of the political and religious climate of the first century ancient near east. Israel was under the hand of oppressive leadership, both politically and religiously. Luke, ever the historian, notes Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, and Herod and his brother Philip as the political leaders, and Annas and Caiaphas as the high priests—who would be considered the religious leaders. Additionally, the prophets (who were God’s spokespersons) hadn’t spoken in over 400 years. Everyone expected that God didn’t care. Yet, when it was least expected, Luke tells us “it was at this time a message came from God…”
There was also an unexpected person. This message, Luke tells us, came to John, the son of Zechariah. We call him John the Baptist. It was quite unexpected that God would use this strange man who lived out in the desert and had a crazy wardrobe of camel hair, and had a steady diet of locusts and wild honey. No, we would expect that God would use the religious leaders, or even the political leaders of the day. Don’t they speak for God? Ha! We can’t always assume that God will use the religious leaders to do His bidding. This passage…this event…challenges me. After all, I’m considered a religious leader. It forces me to ask, “What am I doing with what God has entrusted to me?” And, we say we live in a Christian nation (debatable, I know), but seriously, we can’t ever expect our political leaders to speak for God. We can pray for them. We can hope they’ll be in tune to God’s will, that they’ll embody some kind of spirituality, but this passage reminds me that God chose a crazy man from the backside of the desert to deliver his message to a hurting, longing world.
There was an unexpected message, and that was “The King is coming!” It was a call to get ready, and there was some pretty specific instruction as to how that was to look: repentance and baptism. Well, what was unexpected about that? After all, these were not foreign concepts to first century folks. The Old Testament has many examples of people turning from sin and God forgiving them. One of the most prominent examples the Jewish people knew of was that of David’s repentance when Samuel confronted him concerning his sin with Bathsheba. David said, “I have sinned against the Lord!” But, Samuel said, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you.” Zacchaeus, in Luke 19, is an example of a Jewish person who repented. After his encounter with Jesus, he gave away half his wealth and paid back up to four times that which he had cheated from others. I’m not sure whether you realize it or not, but that’s a lot of money!
Likewise, these Jewish people would be well familiar with the idea of baptism, for you see, Gentile converts who came to the Jewish faith had to be baptized to be considered Jewish. They were baptized into the faith. But, baptism was for Gentiles. The unexpected twist was John was preaching baptism to Jewish folk. They needed to be baptized? Now, that was unexpected! It was an unexpected person in an unexpected time preaching an unexpected message. There are a couple of implications we can draw from this passage.
First, God is never not near, but life always happens in God’s time. God is always present, even in those times we can’t see or feel him…even in those times when God seems silent. Sometimes, God is too near to see. One problem we have is our understanding of time. Time is such a strange thing. We say we never have enough time, or that we’ll make time for that project or meeting. We mark time by dates on a calendar, by days and weeks and years, by hours and minutes and seconds. The ancient Greeks had two words for time—chronos and Kairos. Chronos time is that time we mark with the calendar and watch. We measure it. Kairos is different. We can’t translate it precisely, it refers to time that is opportune. Chronos is quantitative. Kairos is qualitative. God operates by Kairos time. God hasn’t forgotten us! God hasn’t forgotten the United States of America. God hasn’t forgotten the Syrian refugees. God hasn’t forgotten the hungry child in Africa. God hasn’t forgotten the lonely widow. God hasn’t forgotten the unemployed oil field worker, and God has forgotten you. When we least expect it, God will be right there…meeting our need, but more importantly, doing His will.
Second, do you think you’re nobody from nowhere? God wants to use you to make a difference. A mother shared a story about a play held at their church. She said, “My daughter, Jana, was so excited about her part in the Church play that I was sure that she was one of the main characters. But she would never tell what part she was playing. She wanted it to be a surprise.”
The night of the performance the parents and grandparents were all in the audience. One by one, the children took their places for the opening scene. The mother could see the shepherds fidgeting in one corner as Mary and Joseph stood solemnly behind the manger. In the back, three wise men waited impatiently. Jana, her daughter, was calmly sitting on a chair off to the side.
The teacher began, “A long time ago, Mary and Joseph had a baby, and they named Him Jesus. When Jesus was born, a bright star appeared over the stable.”
With that cue, Jana got up from her chair, picked up a large tin-foil star, walked behind Mary and Joseph and held the star up high for everyone to see. When the teacher told about the shepherds coming to see the baby the three young shepherds came forward, and Jana jiggled the star up and down excitedly to show them where to come. When the wise men responded to their cue, Jana took a few steps forward to meet them and lead the way, her face as bright as the real star might have been that night.
The play ended, and on the way home Jana said, with great satisfaction, “I had the main part!”
“You did?” the mother questioned, wondering why Jana thought that.
“Yes,” she said, “'’cause I showed everybody how to find Jesus!"
We need Jana’s attitude. Even if it’s simply carrying a tin-foil covered star, God can use us in the most unexpected ways, and I remind you, you probably have a greater impact than I do. It was the case in John’s day. It’s the same in our day.
Advent reminds us that we “live in the meantime”—between his coming and his coming again. In the meantime, Jesus still meets us in a quite unexpected way. He meets us here at this table where we share the bread and cup. We come. We bring all of who we are to meet him in this mysterious sacrament called Holy Communion, and just as unexpectedly as he meets us here, he gives us strength and hope for all the twists and turns of life. So, come, but come expecting to find Christ here…to meet him…to kn
